Concerns such as flow behavior, thickness, spoilage, and shelf life all affect the quality and consistency of production processes. With the right tests, you can monitor those concerns to understand how they affect your product, and predict how your product will behave in production and during customer use.
Viscosity testing can tell you a lot about how your food or beverage product will behave in different scenarios. Since the test is related to flowability, the product must be in a liquid state during testing, or at least be stir-able. For instance, you might think of mashed potatoes as a solid, but you can still stir them with a spoon. Therefore, they can be suitable for viscosity testing.
Testing with the consistometer is often mistaken for viscosity, so let's make it clear from the start that consistency and viscosity are NOT the same thing. While both measurements involve examining how a product flows, the consistometer is an empirical test that can only tell you how far your product spreads under its own weight in a given amount of time. Every company will create its own unique standards for their product.
The Bostwick Consistometer offers a quick and easy one-point test for measuring the product's relative ability to flow. Originally designed for testing ketchup, this instrument is good for testing smooth products that are neither very watery nor so thick that they won't flow of their own accord. Condiments, smooth (flowing) batters, and smooth sauces are appropriate for testing with the consistometer.
Measuring density or specific gravity is
• Density or Brix
Samples in this category include milk, dairy products, soft drinks, carbonated drinks, fruit juice, soy milk, etc. Density or Brix is measured for quality control purposes during production process and/or before shipment.
• Alcohol Concentration
Samples in this category include beer, wine, whiskey, Japanese sake and other liquors. Pricing can be subject to Alcohol Concentration or extract, and taxation subject to alcohol degree.
• Brix Concentration
Samples in this category include raw materials such as honey, syrup, concentrated extract, saline water, isomerized sugar, etc. Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce or barbecue sauce is checked for taste control by measuring Brix or Concentration of target substance.
• Density or Specific Gravity
Quality of vegetable oil and animal oil are controlled by measuring Density or Specific Gravity.
A density meter is a great tool when you are trying to get as much information as possible using one device: Density, Specific Gravity, brix, alcohol %, alcohol proof, concentrations, etc.
Water activity is an important measurement for determining food shelf life. Water activity (aw) measures the free water on a substance. The FDA regulates water activity in food products to ensure that sufficient water is not available to support bacteria, yeast or mold growth during storage. Water activity is frequently measured for many food products including:
• Cured or dried meats
• Aged or soft cheeses
• Preserved goods such as jams and jellies
• Sweets such as caramel, toffee and honey
Water Activity Meters have a range from zero to 1.0 aw. The level of microbial growth is evaluated against this table to determine risk of spoilage and other bad things.
Loss on Drying (LOD) analysis will provide you with the total water content in your sample. The digital moisture balance is a useful tool for total moisture content analysis. Its simple design and ease of use make this moisture balance convenient for many essential food production applications.
Loss on drying, by its very nature, means that we are drying the sample and, in the process, heating the sample. It was discovered that the total loss or mass loss caused by other volatile substances present if the initial food sample itself or created during the heating process led to some erroneous conclusions.
Oils are an example of a volatile substance that can burn off in addition to the moisture and possibly give incorrect results. If your samples do not have a problem with other material burning off and the accuracy of 0.2% is accurate enough, then this approach may work best for you.
Loss on drying is used in the following scenarios:
The Digital Moisture Balance meaures moisture using the loss on drying technique. Moisture accuracy is 0.2%.
